More and More B-Schools Accepting GRE Score for Admissions

"The word is out that accepting the GRE General Test opens the door to a larger pool of diverse and highly qualified candidates with the skills to succeed in business," said David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ETS's Higher Education Division. "MBA programs around the world are looking for ways to attract more candidates while maintaining a level of excellence, and they are coming to the GRE Program to do so."

Incidentally, the surge in addition of B-Schools accepting GRE Score has coincided with the launch of GRE Revised General Test in August 2011 by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the official administrator of GRE. GRE Revised General Test replaced the GRE General Test being conducted earlier. The GRE Revised General Test is test-taker friendly and has new questions and more closely reflects the kind of thinking you'll do in graduate or business school and demonstrates that you are ready for graduate-level work. The main feature of the new GRE Test is that it has done away with some typical Verbal vocabulary portions.

Some of the Business schools including some top B-Schools such as Stanford Graduate Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan), Michigan Ross School of Business, IE Business School Spain etc. have also started accepting GRE Score for their MBA Courses.

As of now, more than 60 of top 100 business programs in US accept GRE Score. The latest addition includes the names such as Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, Northweste
University's Kellogg School of Management, and Leeds School of Business at University of Colorado – Boulder.

"We believe using GRE scores allows us to tap into a market of students who already plan to take the GRE and may see the GMAT as a hindrance four or five years after graduation from college," says Christine E. Sneva, Acting Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University.

GRE Revised General Test is conducted online as well as paper based. The number of centers for conducting GRE Test is much more and GRE centers cover much more geographical area tha
GMAT centers. That is why GRE takers are considered culturally, ethnically and geographically diverse. The trend world over in good education program is to attract students from as diverse group as possible, making acceptance of GRE scores an ideal way to all graduate-level programs.

The main reason cited behind sudden interest among Business Schools to accept GRE Score for their MBA Programs is that B-Schools want to broaden the applicant pool. The other reasons are unavailability of GMAT Test Centers at some locations, lack of interest to take another test after completing graduation through GRE (GRE Score is valid for 5 years) and to encourage more and more women candidates who are considered more likely to not take GMAT Test after once taking GRE Test.